Garuda

Garuda is the Primal of storms, worshiped by the IxalBeastmen tribe. Her home is on the blustery mountains of Coerthas, where the Ixal both adore and fear the elegant Primal. Garuda's wrath has been known to erupt without warning, and she uses tornado and cyclone attacks to deal damage. Her main ability is Aerial Blast. Garuda is fought starting at level 44, with players limited to level 46 abilities, though there is also a Hardmode fight available at level 50 with a different strategy.

If the fight against Titan was difficult, the fight against Garuda could be considered downright hard. The battle is set at level 44, with players above level 46 being synced down. The battle is a multi-phase situation, and players must be aware of the specifics of the arena at all time, lest they destroy their chances of victory early on. Garuda requires proper positioning of the entire group, as well as avoidance of her many abilities to reach success.

Garuda spawns at the far end of her arena, a large, circular area with four stone pillars in the middle. It is of utmost importance that Garuda be kept away from these pillars, and that no player stands near them except for during a specific attack.This is due to the fact that the pillars themselves are destructible, and Garuda's attacks will reduce them to pebbles before long. When the group begins the fight, they will want to approach from the left and right sides: the tank from one side, and the DPS and healers from the other, giving the pillars a wide berth.

Periodically, Garuda will used an ability called Friction, which causes AOE damage (roughly 700-1000) on whoever it strikes. This ability can be absorbed by the pillar, but players should not attempt to hide from it, and heal through the damage to make sure that the stones are not damaged. Ranged DPS and the healer must try to spread out to avoid the damage from Friction becoming overwhelming. Garuda will also periodically do a melee-range AOE attack without warning, which healers will easily be able to heal through.

At roughly 80% health, Garuda will use her ultimate attack for the first time: she will teleport (likely to almost the same spot she is standing, so pay attention), and begin charging Mistral Shriek.

Before this ability ends, everyone must be standing with a stone pillar between them or the boss, or this ability will likely kill them in one hit.

After Shriek is used, players should again move away from the stones to make sure they continue to survive.

About 30 seconds after Garuda uses Shriek, several Razor Plumes will spawn in the arena. The DPS must destroy these as fast as possible, or they will destroy the stone pillars - if those go down, wipe the fight and start over. The plumes will not attack, however Garuda will continue to use Friction, so the healer must prepare to have both DPS players receiving damage.

At 60%, Garuda will teleport to the opposite end of the arena (where the players first entered) and use Mistral Shriek a second time; simply hide behind the pillars again. After 30 more seconds, more Razor Plumes will again spawn, so destroy them before moving on. At roughly 40-50% health, Garuda will teleport to the middle of the arena one final time, then summon the Razor Plumes yet again. Once the plumes die a third time, a simple bit of damage will move Garuda into Phase Two.

Garuda will move to the center of the arena - when this happens, everyone should hide behind the largest remaining pillar and prepare to take damage. She will use an ability called Aeriel Blast, which will cause unavoidable damage (mitigated somewhat by how much stone remains), and healers must be prepared to land a big group heal to quickly recover from the damage.

Unlike other Primals, her Aerial Blast seems to work off your characters defense, meaning a Tanks Limit Break can help mitigate damage. If your party takes a lot of damage during Aerial Blast, using a Healer Limit Break can also quickly get your party back on their feet.

After, Garuda will shrink the area in which you can fight, but it will be obvious where to stand from the on-screen graphics as a purple ring will surround the battle arena. Never stand in the purple, as this is where the wind will kick up, killing people who stand in it.

Garuda will change her abilities in Phase Two - her Mistral Shriek changes form, and is now executed in a line directly from her. This is avoided by staying behind her, so all players must be aware if she suddenly turns away from the tank and move, or they will receive roughly 3,000 damage and die. She will also continue to do AOE damage at melee range, so healers must be prepared to fire off fast heals. Mega Potions are highly recommended for emergencies. Meanwhile, a melee DPS (or caster, if there is no melee) should use the Limit Break as soon as Garuda is vulnerable.

There is an apparent glitch during this encounter. In Phase Two, Garuda will still teleport and perform Mistral Shriek. WIthout pillars to hide behind, this can be problematic. Mistral Shriek still moves in a line in front of her, so positioning the party as close to the edges of the arena as possible will make the attack miss. Garuda will reappear in the small arena and the fight will continue.

The rest of the fight is a DPS battle, struggling to bring her down before her abilities cause a wipe. Unlike Titan or Ifrit, she does not have a spawned aspect like the heart or nail that must be destroyed before she uses an ultimate ability, so players only need to avoid her Shriek ability to survive.

After defeating the primal, players will be granted a cutscene, and further access to the storyline.

This fight is incredibly difficult compared to the regular fight, and most random groups made via the duty finder may find it impossible to complete without a great deal of coordination. As the fight can be very lengthy and confusing, players will have to remain completely focused for the entire duration. This fight requires each DPS to maximize their output as much as possible, as Garuda will spawn healing adds at several points, and the group will need to deal with both the adds and her restored health as quickly as possible. Naturally, this fight is also very healing-intensive, and any WHM or SCH player should come prepared with ethers, and high-level equipment.

Phase One

The fight begins similar to the normal version of Garuda: the main tank will tank her where she stands. DPS and healers should remain away from the stone pillars, as before, until she teleports around the room. When this happens, the raid must hide behind the rocks in the same way they did in regular. Once more, Garuda will summon adds that must be DPS'd down as fast as possible, lest they destroy the stones. Garuda has a frontal swipe ability, so she must always be tanked facing a wall.

It is on pinnacle importance, even more than in regular, to ensure little to no extra damage hits the rocks during Phase One, as how healthy they are directly correlates to how damaging the transition to Phase Two will be for the group. During Phase One, here are the locations to which Garuda will teleport in order:

1st Teleport: North, the same spot she begins the fight in.2nd Teleport: Middle of the stones.3rd Teleport: East (to the right of where she initially spawned) - the tank should tank her here after her Shriek ability, instead of moving her back to north.4th Teleport: Middle, should not do any raid damage, but will summon the small adds.5th Teleport: Middle, this is the transition to Phase Two.

Phase Two

This is the hardest part of the encounter. Once Garuda transitions, your group will be hit with a major AoE attack, which must be healed immediately. Meanwhile, your tank must pull Garuda to the west side of the map, hugging the wall and tanking like normal.

Green circles that spawn cyclones will begin to show up around the room, causing massive damage and a knockback to anyone caught inside. These can knock you into another tornado, causing a chain reaction and death, so they must be avoided by everyone. One hit will likely not kill a player, but two hits will.

Garuda will also spawn two miniature versions of herself, one of which has a red line channeling it to the boss, the other of which has a green line. The off-tank (preferably a Warrior, if you have the option) will tank these to either the left or right of the main tank, again making sure they are facing the wall, as they have the same cleave attack as Garuda. The green add heals the boss, and must die first, then the red add should be killed as fast as possible.

Note, if either of the Garuda clones do not die fast enough, they will teleport to the room and use a massive AoE that will likely kill some, if not all of the group. If both adds use the AoE, the group will wipe.

Once her adds are dead, the group needs to begin rotating clockwise around the room. The green tornado/circles will start spawning in your path, so keep coming. The raid needs to stay as close to Garuda, right behind her, moving at all times between casts to stay mobile. While this is happening, her feather adds will spawn, and need to be killed as fast as possible while the DPS stays close to the group. When you end up around the north side of the map, the fight will transition into Phase Three.

Phase Three Just like the regular mode fight, the outside of the arena will be covered in wind, forcing players to move into the middle. Garuda will once again spawn the miniature versions of herself, so kill the green then red add as fast as possible.

It is highly advisable to have a ranged caster (SMN or BLM) use a Level 3 Limit Break on both of the adds (and the boss if possible) to kill them as fast as possible.

After the adds die, Garuda will transition back to Phase Two - take her to the NORTH side of the room this time, and repeat the Phase Two steps from before.

Garuda will continue to transition between the second and third phases until she finally dies.